DHAKA: The Home Office has suspended English language tests run by a major firm after BBC Panorama uncovered systematic fraud in the student visa system.

Secret filming of government-approved exams needed for a visa shows candidates having tests faked for them.

ETS, which sets the exams but does not appoint the invigilators, told Panorama it ‘does everything it can to detect and prevent’ cheating.

Home Secretary Theresa May said the BBC’s evidence was ‘very shocking’.

Panorama saw candidates for tests set by ETS, one of the largest language testing firms in the world, being replaced by ‘fake sitters’ and having answers read out to them.

For the last year, the programme has been filming undercover, following a network of agents helping people obtain student visa extensions through fraud.

Each year, around 100,000 non-EU students get their visas to stay in the UK extended.

The programme sent non-EU students, who were already in the UK legally, undercover.

They posed as bogus students with poor English, who wanted to remain in the UK to work illegally, the BBC publishes this report on Monday.

BDST: 1753 HRS, FEB 10, 2014